Very low level operations coordination platform

ABSTRACT

A Very Low Level Operations Coordination Platform and a method of operating that includes a cloud-based software platform that serves as a central database application for drone-related applications The central database application includes a database storing any, some or all zones which defines where drones are and are not allowed to fly based on all required information such as but not limited to drone legislation, airspace structure, obstacles, environment and people density, taking into account scheduled flights, planned flights and flights flown of other drones. If the drone fails to remain within the approved fly zone the platform is adapted to proactively intervene in flight operations so that the drone cannot leave the approved fly zone.

The present application relates to systems and methods of approving andcontrolling drone flights, to drones themselves and to apps for use withsmart phones for visualising the drone operations.

BACKGROUND

Drones relate to an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), e.g. unmannedaerial vehicles (UAV). In this application the terms drone and unmannedaerial vehicle system are considered to be synonymous. The flight of UASor UAV may be controlled with various kinds of autonomy: either by agiven degree of remote control from an operator, located on the groundor in another system, or fully autonomously, by on-board computers.

‘Flyaways’ of drones have been reported which happen when a drone eitherloses contact with its pilot or simply flies away inexplicably, with thefailsafe, which is supposed to return the drone to “home” in case offailure, also malfunctioning.

Manufacturers say flyaways are caused by user error, drone-ownersusually say it's a manufacturer defect. Others blame it on lack oftraining of the pilots. One problem is that small drones often offer avery limited flight time—usually tens of minutes with a limitedeffective control distance of a few hundred meters. The ability ofdrones to fly far beyond the visual range of the pilot and at analtitude that might concern manned flight or cause danger to persons andproperty on the ground causes concern. There are a number of safetymeasures that have been utilized such as avoiding flying above populatedareas or at altitudes where manned aircraft are likely to be present,and utilizing autopilots with “Return to Home” capability whichautomatically fly the aircraft back to the pilot in the event of asignal loss.

For instance, an on-board global navigation system (GNS) such as anon-board global positioning system (GPS) can be provided and the systemwill automatically trigger the “Return To Home” procedure and shouldland safely when the communication between the main controller and thetransmitter is lost. Where this “Go Home” function is an opt-in functionand not an opt-out one, the pilot can forget to enable it. Further, dueto the limited flight time, a drone must activate the return-to-homeearly enough to reach home. Others argue that the 2.4 GHZ band used bymany small drones for the connection between the ground transmitter anddrone is too crowded. This band is used by many devices such as computerwireless networks, model vehicles, baby monitors to name a few. This cancause problems when an area has dense housing and/or office buildingswith many interfering wireless signals. A drone can also interfere withits own on-board systems when it has two separate systems, one forcontrol of the drone and one for transmitting the video or images froman on-board camera. First-person view (FPV) or remote-person view (RPV),relates to video piloting to control a drone from the pilot's viewpoint. The vehicle system has an on-board camera whose output is fedwirelessly to a video monitor. Some designs include a pan-and-tiltgimbaled camera controlled by a gyroscope sensor in the pilot's monitor.With dual on-board cameras a true stereoscopic view can be obtained.However, transmitting video streams requires a significant wirelessbandwidth and excellent reception, i.e. a low level of interference.

Although drone owners might think that they provide a vital monitoringfunction of events such as riots, major accidents, criminal or terroristattacks and demonstrations, the security forces attempting to respond tosuch disturbances do not want potential drone threats in their area ofoperations. Drones have already been shot down by police in suchsituations. If bona fide journalists begin to use drones to carry outtheir reporting function, or if the security forces wish to use suchdrones for surveillance it would be necessary to know whether a droneentering such an area is licensed to observe such events or not. Due tothe fact that such events may develop in minutes a safe fly zone canbecome a no-fly-zone within a drone's flight time. Also weatherconditions may change rapidly resulting in flying conditions becomingimpossible for a drone in certain areas.

On the other hand there is a considerable interest in the commercial useof drones. Amazon has announced its “Prime Air” which is a futuredelivery system to get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less usingsmall unmanned aerial drones. Putting Prime Air into service is said torequire regulatory support. Delivery of medication to remote areas hasalso been suggested.

One issue is the range of different users of drones or those affected bythem, such as private users for recreation, professional users, police,aviation authorities, aviation control and air traffic management,manufacturers of drones, software houses and system builders. There istherefore potentially a very large number of users or interestedparties, most of whom have no background knowledge of aviation. Anotherissue is that most drones are not equipped with sophisticated controlsand fly at a height where they cannot be detected by ground radar asused by air traffic control for manned flight.

There are restrictions on drone use in built up areas, controlledairspace reserved by air traffic control and airspace for specific airactivities.

The current air traffic control systems cannot be used to check droneactivity at low altitude. If there are a large number of proprietarysystems it is impractical for interested parties to identify and monitorall of them. Low altitude airspace is used by manned aircraft, such aspolice helicopters. This is a dangerous situation in which theconsequences are incalculable on a potential collision.

While manned flight paths are publically available, as are approvedairfields or heliports, drone operations could be anywhere. This causesa serious inspection difficulty. This lack of monitoring ability meansthat there is a problem to distinguish between illegal and legalactivities.

Drone activities also raise privacy questions especially with on-boardcameras. The aviation industry is one of the most demanding andstringently regulated industries that exist and this is essential inorder to guarantee maximum safety. This is the result of constantevolution that lasted for a hundred years. Therefore, it is anunprecedented challenge to integrate drone activities in a secure way inthe existing air space. If drone activities are made available to thegeneral public then pilots may not be aware of the dangers and are oftenunfamiliar with aviation regulations. Pilots of manned aircraft have togo through an extended training, examination and review process toobtain a pilot's license. An equivalent training for drones would beexcessively expensive. If the drone pilot license and insurancerequirements were to vary from country to country this would makeco-ordination at an international level difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first aspect of the present invention a Very Low Level OperationsCoordination Platform is provided comprising a cloud-based softwareplatform that serves as a central database application for drone-relatedapplications, the central database application comprising a databasestoring any, some or all of airspace structure, drone legislation,system information of drones, data identifying drone users,no-fly-zones, scheduled flights, planned flights and flights flown,wherein if a drone fails to remain within reserved airspace the platformis adapted to proactively intervene in flight operations so that thedrone cannot leave the reserved airspace.

In general, as used in embodiments of the present invention, geographiczones are defined. Hence a Very Low Level Operations CoordinationPlatform can comprise a cloud-based software platform that serves as acentral database application for drone-related applications, the centraldatabase application comprising a database storing any, some or allgeographic zones. The Platform defines where drones are and are notallowed to fly based on all required information such as but not limitedto drone legislation, airspace structure, obstacles, environment andpeople density, taking into account scheduled flights, planned flightsand flights flown of other drones, wherein if the drone fails to remainwithin the approved fly zone the platform is adapted to proactivelyintervene in flight operations so that the drone cannot leave theapproved fly zone.

A platform can include:

The drones themselves. As drone capability needs to be matched toplatform requirements the drones are an integral part of the platform.

Hardware including embedded systems. Embedded systems can accesshardware directly, with or without an operating system.

A browser functionality in the case of web-based software. Although abrowser itself can run on a computer comprising hardware, memory, aprocessing engine and an operating system this is need not relevant tosoftware running within the browser.

A computer application can host software written in anapplication-specific scripting language. Software can be provided forready-made functionality.

A platform can include cloud computing and can provide a service. Asoftware framework can be linked by internet communication, for exampleor can be enabled to have direct communication with a drone, e.g. viawireless communication which can be a public wireless communication suchas a cellular wireless system. Alternatively direct communication with adrone can be by a private wireless communication system.

A platform may use a virtual machine (VM) such as the Java virtualmachine or .NET CLR. Applications are compiled into a format similar tomachine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM, e.g.on-board.

A virtualized version of a complete system, including virtualizedhardware, OS, software and storage. These allow, for instance, a typicalWindows program to run on what is physically a Mac.

A platform can have multiple layers, with each layer acting as aplatform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to beadapted to the layer immediately beneath it.

In a further aspect of the present invention a drone is provided, havinga processor on-board as well as basic systems required to communicatewith a cellular mobile telephone system or other wireless networks (e.g.Sigfox, LoRa, Iridium) including antennas, one or more processors,transceivers for transmission and reception, being able to register onany available network, location update and the transmission andreception of the short message service.

In a further aspect the present invention provides a method of Very LowLevel Operations Coordination comprising the steps of:

Maintaining a central database application for drone-relatedapplications. For example the central database application can comprisea database storing any, some or all zones which defines where drones areand are not allowed to fly based on all required information such as butnot limited to drone legislation, airspace structure, obstacles,environment and people density, taking into account scheduled flights,planned flights and flights flown of other drones, wherein if the dronefails to remain within the approved fly zone the platform is adapted toproactively intervene in flight operations so that the drone cannotleave the approved fly zone. For example, the central databaseapplication can comprise a database storing any, some or all of airspacestructure including reserved spaces for drones to fly in, dronelegislation, system information of drones, data identifying drone users,no-fly-zones, scheduled flights, planned flights and flights flown,wherein if a drone fails to remain within reserved airspace the platformis adapted to proactively intervene in flight operations so that thedrone cannot leave the reserved airspace. By providing reserved spacesfor drones the danger of collisions with other aircraft is reduced.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will be described with respect to particularembodiments but the invention is not limited thereto but only by theclaims.

In one embodiment the present invention provides an open, cloud-basedsoftware platform that serves as a central database application forDrone-related applications. In addition to the airspace structure andavailable Drone legislation the database can contain system informationof Drones, Drone Users, Scheduled flights, obstacles, planned flightsand flights flown. For example, a central database application cancomprise a database storing definitions of any, some or all zones. Thecentral database application can define where drones are and are notallowed to fly based on all required information such as but not limitedto drone legislation, airspace structure, air space reserved for drones,obstacles, environment and people density, taking into account scheduledflights, planned flights and flights flown of other drones,

The system is adapted to prevent conflicts between drones users andbetween drone users and manned aircraft and to ensure that a droneoperator can determine automatically or manually whether their plannedflights can proceed within the legal framework and without conflictswith other planned and unplanned operations of other users such asplanned or unplanned drone flights. The system can be configured toinform drones, drone users or drone operators of a conflict and todeconflict them, especially with respect to potential conflicts frommanned aircraft.

The system can be used by different types of users. For each type ofcustomer, there is another interface with custom functionality: privateusers, professional users, police, aviation authorities, aviationcontrol, air traffic management, manufacturers of drones, softwarehouses and system builders.

In addition to airspace structure defining and recording the informationwhere drones are and are not allowed to fly, the system preferablycontains data from drones, drone users, scheduled flights, flights inprogress and already implemented.

Embodiments of the present invention provide the central databaseplatform as part of a Very Low Level Operations Coordination (VLLOC)platform. This platform serves as a portal for anyone and everyone whotakes part in drone operations. The system is applicable to drones thatoperate at low altitudes, e.g. below the heights at which conventionalradar can monitor aircraft. It includes a passive and/or activemonitoring system including coordination of drone information and droneoperations of all parties.

In some embodiments the VLLOC platform can consist of two main parts,namely a database with services that can collect and/or can distributeinformation to drone operators and a component that visualizes the droneactivities and coordinates, obstacles and other relevant information.

The database can store all relevant business and contact information ofa drone operator. Additionally, this database can be used to distributeinformation on all zones or all relevant zones where drones are allowedto fly. Such information can be made available or shared with any someor all of the police or other security organisations, security services,emergency services and aviation authorities. The database can log dronepilot licenses, insurance certificates, loggings of past and plannedflights and other official documents that are important to be stored fordrone operations.

This database is associated with a component which visualizes all droneoperations. The drone operator indicates a pilot who will be flyingdrones, as well as where and when these flights will take place. Todetermine whether a drone flight is or is not allowed to fly anapplication procedure will be started. This procedure consists of theautomated validation of the applicable validation processes. Thisvalidation process will be determined separately for each country andwill be an analysis of the applicable legislation. The drone operatorknows in this way whether he is or isn't allowed to fly at the indicatedplace, or what regulations he has to meet in order to be allowed to fly.Flights will be deconflicted from other drone flights through an onlinesystem of the VLLOC platform. Flight approval for the drone flight isachieved by submitting the intended fly zone, speed and direction offlight in near-real time. When the flight is approved a digital flightinformation exchange model such as NOTAM, AXIM (Aeronautical InformationExchange Model), FIXM (Flight Information Exchange Model) or similarwill be published. With this, the VLLOC platform has all the informationin order to determine whether the drone will leave an approved fly zoneor an airspace reserved or allowed for drones.

Embodiments of the present invention preferably provide a VLLOC platformusing Geo-caging, i.e. the principle that a drone can only use anairspace reserved zone, or an approved zone for its operations. Theseoperations cannot take place outside of this zone. Geo-caging controls,on the basis of reserved airspace, any planned flight of a drone. Thedrone operations must take place within this airspace reserved orapproved zone. Failure to do so can result in the VLLOC platformproactively interfering in flight operations so that the drone does notleave the airspace reservation or approved zone. The VLLOC platform cancontrol the drone in three dimensions if the drone intends to leave thereserved airspace, e.g. by connecting with an on-board autopilotfunction and transmitting commands thereto.

To execute a successful flight operation an application process mustmeet all validation processes as required by the applicable droneregulation and/or zone regulation, such as confirmation of the pilot oroperator identity, drone(s) to be used for the operation, the intendedfly zone (e.g. horizontal and vertical dimensions), timings of theoperation, whether there is an operational conflict, e.g. with otherplanned or unplanned drone flights or that there will be no intrusionwith a no-fly zone. A flight is approved only if all of theserequirements are met. This could be done automatically by the platformaccording to embodiments of the present invention if all conditions aremet or if needed, a manual escalation process will take place whereadditional interactions will be required (i.e. approval process) in casethe application was not in line with the prescribed initial flightconstraints. The logging of this information in the database for eachflight means that all interested parties are informed of and aremanaging all drone activities. Other information can be logged such asoperator cell phone number, an Operation name, an Operation type,whether Air traffic control services have been informed, etc. Thecompetent authorities can intervene if necessary, by contacting thedrone pilot or operator, e.g. via the stored operator cell phone number.They may also, if necessary, restrict or limit areas or zones.

Police may also have access to request data and see if an operator isoperating legally. Emergency services, Federal Police (Service AirSupport) and Defense, can also be provided with access to this databasebecause they are often operating helicopters flying at a very lowaltitude. The local authorities may also impose limits but provideexceptions through the system that can be enforced by the police intheir turn. Third parties may make requests to see if their privacy hasor will be infringed.

To ensure safety, all drone operators must be aware of where others willfly so they can coordinate in advance to avoid collisions. The VLLOCplatform according to embodiments of the present invention can also useexternal data to provide additional awareness information, for exampleEAD (European AIS Database), eTOD (Electronic Terrain and ObstacleData), Meteorological data, ADS-B (Automatic DependentSurveillance-Broadcast).

An exemplary embodiment of a drone operative system is as follows. Eachdrone has a processor on-board as well as the basic systems required tocommunicate with a telecommunications network, e.g. components requiredto communicate with cellular mobile telephone systems including on-boardantennas, a transceiver for transmission and reception, being able andadapted to register on any available telecommunication system, toperform a location update and the transmission and reception of theshort message service. The processor is adapted to receive a messagesuch as a message in any format sent over a network such as a messagefrom a Short Message Service (SMS) and extract and parse thealphanumeric data and process it. The drone will have a mobile telephonenumber that it can access and transmit data to. This telephone number ismonitored by the VLLOC platform. The drone will also have RAM andnon-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory will store geographic datasuch as non-fly-zones, approved zones, reserved zones as well as zoneswith a height restriction or other restrictions like no use of cameras(privacy restrictions). The memory will also store a planned andapproved flight plan and any passwords that are required. The processorwill be programmed to carry out any authentication or access algorithms,data compression and decompression algorithms, encryption and decryptionalgorithms and telecommunication codecs to allow communications with atelecommunication network such as a wireless network including acellular wireless network.

The drone will be able to monitor its location. For example it can havea global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver such as a GlobalPosition System (GPS) receiver and the processor can operate on thereceived data from the satellites to determine position on the ground,speed over ground and height. Alternatively or additionally it candetermine its position using the cellular wireless telephone system orany other wireless network. One method of determining the location ofsuch as drone is by the Cell ID. A geographical area for a wirelesscellular communications system is generally divided into separate radiocoverage areas or cells. Generally a base station is located in eachcell and a drone configured as a mobile user can communicate with one ormore base station transceivers located in one or more cells. Severalcells may be grouped together and referred to as a location area. If thedrone leaves a location area it will register itself with the newlocation area via the cell in which it is currently located by LocationUpdating. Both location areas and base stations generally have anidentifier such as a Location Area Identifier and a Base StationIdentifier which are generally transmitted on a common signallingchannel. Location updating causes updating of subscriber data of dronein a subscriber database. Hence, the location updating procedure resultsin a location of each drone that has accessed the system being recorded.

Other methods of location are known including the measurement of signalstrength received by the drone, reports of time differences betweentransmissions from different base stations, reports on synchronisationor other network information, paging messages which contain geographicdata. The drone can support mobile based position location methods inwhich the cellular network provides information for the drone to locateitself autonomously.

Geographic data can be transmitted to the drone via a message in anyformat over the network in the form of geographic co-ordinates. Anexample may the latitude and longitude of a point or a set of latitudesand longitudes which define an area, e.g. a set of three for a triangle,a set of four for a square oblong, parallelogram, or similar polygon.Alternatively, the latitude and longitude of a point is specified withan additional distance. The distance defines the radius of a circlehaving its centre as the specified point. This allows an update to thedrone of a change in the geographic co-ordinates of no-fly-zones. Thisallows dynamic adaptation of the non-fly-zones as can happen because ofa change in weather or disasters, accidents, or criminal attacks etc.Once received the drone will update its database and will confirm theupdate by a sending a confirmation message. One method of confirming anupdate is to create a hash of the updated database which is transmittedby e.g. SMS or any other transmitted message to the VLLOC platform whereit can be checked for accuracy.

One important activity is the control of developing emergency situationsdynamically during a drone flight. Helicopters are used by the police,armed services and hospitals which fly at low altitudes at unplannedtimes along unplanned routes. The VLLOC platform has a record of theflight path of any drone. It can also receive location updates throughtransmitted data messages as indicated above. Thus the VLLOC platformcan liaise with emergency services to detect potential conflicts withhelicopter flights or any other airborne missions. Helicopter accidentsare particularly serious as there is no safe way of ejecting from ahelicopter. Positions and flight paths of helicopters can be sent to thedrone via a message in any format over a network e.g. a message providedby a SMS or any other messaging system and instructions to move left,right, up, down can be transmitted to the drone from the VLLOC platformusing the messaging service. The on-board processor is adapted to parsesuch a message and to extract the commands.

The VLLOC platform according to embodiments of the present invention mayalso be adapted to prevent a drone taking off if the flight is notapproved. For example the drone may require a “golden key” before it maystart. If the drone does not receive an appropriate digital golden keythe processor on-board the drone is able to prevent operation of theflight controls and the engine. The digital golden key may be analphanumeric code that is received by the drone via a e.g. SMS messageor other transmitted message over a wireless network. The digital goldenkey may be created by any suitable encryption system, e.g. one thatrelies on exchanged or random numbers, challenges etc.

The drone can have its own on-board energy storage such as a batteriesand/or ultracapacitors. The drone may also include solar cells as apower source, e.g. a source that can maintain processor activity evenafter a forced landing or accident. In this way the position of thedrone can be determined at all times that the drone is in contact withthe cellular mobile phone system or wireless network. Mobile phonelocation systems or wireless network location systems are presentlyavailable from several suppliers and thus the drone can be located evenafter it has crash landed.

Use of the mobile phone system or other wireless network also allowsso-called “apps” to be installed on a smart phone which allows locationfinding of the drone as the drone will have a mobile telephone number,as well as checks on the present state of reserved zones, approvedzones, no-fly-zones and/or weather problems.

Drones may also include active or passive identifiers. One example is apassive identifier that can receive energy from a wireless source andthen emit a signal, e.g. the drone may make use of a passive RFID tag.The drone may make use of a wireless identification and sensing platformwhich comprises an RFID (radio-frequency identification) device thatsupports sensing and computing: a microcontroller powered byradio-frequency energy. The tag is powered and read by an RFID reader.The tag harvests the power that it uses from the reader's emitted radiosignals or any other signals. The harvested energy operates a generalpurpose microcontroller. The microcontroller can perform a variety ofcomputing tasks, including sampling sensors, and reporting that sensordata back to the RFID reader. Such a device can be used by the policeand security forces if a drone flies into a no-fly-zone designated bythe police and security forces. By firing sufficient radio frequencyenergy at the drone the tag will react and emit a signal such as an AIS(Automatic Identification System) identifier. The police and securityforces on the ground can then see if the drone as the required clearanceto fly in such a drone. If not the police and security forces can takeaction, e.g. in an extreme case fire on the drone and destroy it, orsend a request to the VLLOC platform requesting the removal of the dronein question within so many seconds. The police or security services canuse the microcontroller of the wireless identification and sensingplatform to initiate a return-to-home action which will take the droneout of the relevant area.

A drone can have additional equipment such as any of, some of or all ofa gyroscope, an accelerometer, a compass, a camera, two cameras thatprovide stereoscopic imaging, still or video cameras, hyperspectralcamera, a thermometer, an infrared or an ultraviolet sensor, a radaremitter and/or receiver, a microphone, an ultrasound emitter and/orreceiver, a chemical sensor such as an air pollution sensor, a Geigercounter, a biological sensor, an air speed sensor, navigation lights,audible or visible alarms. These devices may be coupled together in aCAN. The on-board processor can access any of these devices to retrievedata or to make them operate by executing commands. Any such data can betransmitted via e.g. SMS messages or messages from any other wirelesssystem to the VLLOC platform. Such information can include the headingof the drone, speed over ground, air speed, height above ground etc.

A drone can be provided with a space for holding and a releasableholding device for a payload e.g. for holding a post package, a box ofmedical supplies, emergency rations, etc. A drone can be provided withan antenna and a receiver for satellite communications and telemetryincluding GNSSS signals such as GPS signals.

Drones for use with embodiments of the present invention providing aVLLOC platform are preferably adapted to work with the platform suchthat drones are a part of the overall VLLOC platform. Zones can bedefined by constraints which are to apply in each zone. Drones for usewith embodiments of the present invention are preferably adapted to beable to operate with embodiments of the present invention providing aVLLOC platform. Zones can have restrictions and constraints and thedrones for use with the platform are modified technically to match theserestrictions and constraints.

Examples are:

Allowed airspeed in a zone can be determined by the class of drones orby local zone limitations. Drones can be equipped with on-board airspeedmeasuring devices. There are several types of airspeed indicators wellknown in the art for example pitot tube systems using total and staticpressure measurements. Another type of flow speed measurement system isknown as vane and cup anemometers. Another type of sensor system usesmulti-element hot-wire or hot film anemometry. These sensors can providegood frequency response but they are usually fragile, sensitive totemperature changes and require accurate and repeated in-situcalibration for satisfactory performance.

Speed over ground can be determined by information from an on-boardGNSSS or GPS transceiver.

Allowed safe wind speed in a zone can be determined by the class ofdrones or by local zone limitations. If the wind speed of a headwindexceeds the maximum airspeed of the drone, the drone will go backwardsand cannot stay on its route. Wind speed can be provided by ground basedsystems such as airfields and meteorological stations. Wind speed can betransmitted to a drone via a wireless short message, e.g. from theplatform. The wind speed can also be determined by a suitably programmedon-board processor from the difference between the measured airspeed andthe speed over the ground.

Drones may be limited to a certain height over ground. This can bedetermined from information from an on-board GNSSS or GPS transceiver.It can also be determined by an on-board radar time of flight system.

Drones can be equipped with a “heartbeat”—a wireless message that issent out regularly to indicate that communication between the drone andthe ground based VLLOC platform. If a heartbeat is not received by theground based VLLOC platform, an emergency sequence can be initiated,e.g. a signal is sent out from various cells (locally, e.g. within 15 kmof the last reported position of the drone for example) including acommand to send out a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is now not received asignal is sent out from various wireless cells (locally, e.g. within 15km of the last reported position of the drone for example) for the droneto land and to send out a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is now not receiveda signal is sent out from various wireless cells (locally, e.g. within15 km of the last reported position of the drone for example) for thedrone to “return to base immediately”.

Drones can be equipped with a number of solid state radar transmittersand receivers and the processor can be adapted to determine distances toother objects like obstacles or other aircraft and to determine thespeed of these objects by Doppler radar techniques. The processor can beadapted to extrapolate or interpolate measured distances to determine ifthe object is on a collision course.

1-69. (canceled)
 70. A Very Low Level Operations Coordination (“VLOC”)Platform comprising a cloud-based software platform that serves as adatabase application for drone-related applications, the databaseapplication comprising a database storing any, some or all of airspacestructure, drone legislation, system information of drones, dataidentifying drone users, no-fly-zones, scheduled flights, plannedflights and flights flown, being configured for approving a drone flightbased on validation processes.
 71. The VLOC Platform according to claim70, further being configured for approving a drone flight by means ofautomated validation processes.
 72. The VLOC Platform according to claim70, wherein said validation processes include validation of any or someor all of the operator identity, drone or drones used for the operation,the intended fly zone including horizontal and vertical dimensions,timings of the operation, pilot license, legislation, whether there isan operational conflict selected from operational conflict with otherplanned or unplanned drone flights or, that there will be no intrusionwith a no-fly zone.
 73. The VLOC Platform according to claim 70, whereinsaid validation processes include validation of any or some or all ofconfirmation of Pilot name, Pilot cell phone, Operation name, Operationtype, Aircraft type, flight altitude, whether there is an Operationconflict, e.g. with other planned flights, that there will be nointrusion of a no fly zone, or of a Controlled Traffic Region (CTR) orany other airspace with require prior authorization/coordination toenter.
 74. The VLOC platform according to claim 72, being adapted toapprove a flight wherein a flight is approved only if some or all ofthese requirements are met.
 75. The VLOC platform according to claim 74,being adapted to approve of a automatically or by a manual escalationprocess requiring additional interactions in case the application is notin line with the flight constraints.
 76. The VLOC platform according toclaim 70, further being adapted to deconflict drone flights.
 77. TheVLOC platform according to claim 70, further being adapted for logginginformation in the database for each flight.
 78. The VLOC Platformaccording to claim 70, further being adapted to receive intended flyzone, speed, direction and telemetry of flight in near-real time. 79.The VLOC Platform according to claim 70, adapted to, upon approval ofsaid flight, publish a digital flight information exchange model such asNOTAM, AIXM (Aeronautical Information Exchange Model), FIXM (FlightInformation Exchange Model) or similar.
 80. The VLOC Platform accordingto claim 70, further comprising a component for visualising all droneoperations.
 81. The VLOC Platform according to claim 70, configured toprevent conflicts between drones users and between drone users andmanned aircraft and to ensure that a drone operator can determinewhether their planned flights can proceed within the legal framework andwithout conflicts with other planned and unplanned operations of otherusers, by being configured to inform drones, drone users or droneoperators, or any some or all of the police or other securityorganisations, security services, emergency services and aviationauthorities of a conflict.
 82. The VLOC platform of claim 70, whereinthe platform is configured to communicate with a drone via a wirelessnetwork or a satellite system.
 83. The VLOC platform according to claim70, wherein said VLOC Platform comprises at least one interface thatallows access by and to other platforms.
 84. The VLOC platform accordingto claim 82, wherein said other platform is any, some or all of: privateusers, professional users, police, aviation authorities, aviationcontrol, air traffic management, manufacturers of drones, softwarehouses and system builders.
 85. A Very Low Level Operations CoordinationPlatform comprising a cloud-based software platform that serves as adatabase application for drone-related applications, the databaseapplication comprising a database storing any, some or all of airspacestructure, drone legislation, system information of drones, dataidentifying drone users, no-fly-zones, scheduled flights, plannedflights and flights flown, configured to prevent conflicts betweendrones users and between drone users and manned aircraft and to ensurethat a drone operator can determine whether their planned flights canproceed within the legal framework and without conflicts with otherplanned and unplanned operations of other users, being configured toinform drones, drone users or drone operators or any some or all of thepolice or other security organisations, security services, emergencyservices and aviation authorities of a conflict.
 86. A Very Low LevelOperations Coordination Platform comprising a cloud-based softwareplatform that serves as a database application for drone-relatedapplications, the database application comprising a database storingany, some or all of airspace structure, drone legislation, systeminformation of drones, data identifying drone users, no-fly-zones,scheduled flights, planned flights and flights flown, configured toprevent conflicts between drones users and between drone users andmanned aircraft and to ensure that a drone operator can determinewhether their planned flights can proceed within the legal framework andwithout conflicts with other planned and unplanned operations of otherusers, being configured to distribute drone flight related informationto drone operators.
 87. A Very Low Level Operations CoordinationPlatform comprising a cloud-based software platform that serves as adatabase application for drone-related applications, the databaseapplication comprising a database storing any, some or all of airspacestructure, drone legislation, system information of drones, dataidentifying drone users, no-fly-zones, scheduled flights, plannedflights and flights flown, wherein said VLOC Platform comprises at leastone interface that allows access by and to other platforms.
 88. Thecoordination platform according to claim 87, wherein said other platformis any, some or all of: private users, professional users, police,aviation authorities, aviation control, air traffic management,manufacturers of drones, software houses and system builders.